Heitinga takes a swipe at England egos

30 June 2010 08:52

Holland and Everton ace Johnny Heitinga believes England brought about their own downfall at the World Cup because of overinflated egos.

The Three Lions were dumped out of South Africa at the weekend following a humiliating 4-1 defeat to Germany in the last 16.

England's Football Association is discussing the shortcomings of the national team and the future of manager Fabio Capello following the massive underachievement.

But Heitinga, who is preparing for a quarter-final against Brazil, believes that England's players were to blame for their World Cup failure.

He said in The Sun: "It really surprised me that England went out of the tournament so soon.

"When you look at all the players in their squad you've got maybe the best team in the world.

"But if you want to win a big title like the World Cup the most important thing is to be a team, to work for the team and to fight for each other.

"It doesn't matter if someone makes a mistake, you have to cover his back and fight for each other.

"You have to put your ego away and play for the good of the team.

"That is what we have done with the Netherlands. You can see we are all together and united.

"In the past the Dutch have been accused of self-destructing at major tournaments but this time we are at the right age, the players in our squad have been together for a long time and a lot of us are with teams at the highest level in big football countries.

"Everyone is fit and the most important thing is that we all have confidence in our team and in each other."